Monday, February 27, 2017

As I went up the steps into the University Bookstore in
Bellevue, Washington, on a recent Saturday a man in front of me said, “No books
left.”

This was part of a group of bookstores that supplied
textbooks and memorabilia to the University of Washington, whose main campus is
in Seattle. They also sold a variety of books that could be found in a typical
bookstore

I didn’t normally go there, but when I heard they would be
closing, I decided to visit.

What the man said was not actually true—the books were gone
from the area in front of the stairs. To the right, a lot of books were still
left, but going fast. All books were 75% off. One man bought a stack of science
fiction books he could barely carry. I bought a history book I may review one
day.

It reminded me of the recent closure of the Barnes &
Noble bookstore at the Crossroads Mall, also in Bellevue. A friend who runs a
private school said she should buy her books at bookstores instead of online. I
told her that would be a major expense for her, while it would be undetectable
by the bookstore. There was nothing we could do to stop these closures.

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Lt. General Harold (Hal) Moore passed away recently. He was
the author of We Were Soldiers Once—and
Young. Back when he was a lieutenant colonel, he was in command of the 7th
Airborne Cavalry during the Vietnam War. On November 4, 1965, they engaged the
North Vietnamese Army (NVA). This was the first major battle between the U.S.
Army and the NVA, and they thought they were outnumbered three to one. Now that
the government of Vietnam has released many of their records, I believe it was
more like four or five to one. They were completely surrounded.

The book describes the battle in bloody detail. Artillery
shells blew the bodies of the NVA soldiers to pieces
when they launched human wave attacks. Rocket-propelled grenades were used to
deadly effect. The main action was with rifle fire. But as the ammo ran out,
the fighting could be hand-to-hand.

I have read ten books on the Vietnam War, and this one was
by far the best. Do you dislike guns or have never read a gritty account of
modern warfare? Read this book. (Just as in a previous post, I advised readers
who think psychology is bunk to read an issue of Psychology Today.)

Some standout scenes:

-The cutoff platoon: In rapid succession, the lieutenant was
killed, the platoon sergeant was killed, another sergeant was killed. Where
were the maps? Where were the call signs to use over the radio? And the medic
was killed.

-Modern artillery: The artillery was five miles away. But
from highly precise instructions from the front of the battle, the artillery
shells could land as close as thirty yards to the American troops. High
explosive, napalm, white phosphorus. Some were timed to explode in mid-air.

-Crazy pilots: Some would fly less than a hundred feet off
the ground, releasing their bombs on the North Vietnamese.

-The home front: This was the first battle in which
telegrams notifying family members of soldiers’ deaths arrived while the battle
still raged. The Army sent cab drivers—cab drivers!—to deliver them. When one
particular officer found out, he insisted that an officer and a chaplain
deliver any further ones.

The co-author was Joseph Galloway. He became a real combat
reporter. When he arrived at the battle, he tripped and fell on his face in the
dirt, along with his cameras, amusing Hal Moore.

When the movie version, We
Were Soldiers, came out, Galloway had to excuse himself from a friendly
fire scene he knew was coming up. His attempt to save a horribly burned soldier
is portrayed with brutal accuracy.

I remember a scholar once saying that Alexander the Great
was the first of his soldiers to step over the wall of a city to attack it, and
that cannot occur in modern warfare. But it did. Hal Moore was the first to
step off a helicopter into the unfriendly landing zone. He was the last to
leave, stepping onto a helicopter after what had become a battlefield was
cleared of American bodies.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Bruce Campbell’s If
Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor is a surprisingly detailed
account of all aspects of his life that relate to movie-making. This started in
childhood, where he went beyond making G.I. Joes look wounded by burning them
to charging fees for a makeshift golf course to purloining construction
material to build a tree fortress.

Perhaps the most fascinating part describes how in high
school Campbell acted with friends in a number of super-8 movies, made for a
hundred dollars each that would actually play in theaters. By the time he was
college age, he had more practical experience than a lot of drama majors.

Like so many who have unorthodox careers, he pretty much
skipped college. But what steered him to horror movies? He had mostly done
comedy, but he and his friends noticed that a scary scene in a horror movie
always made an audience react. Campbell eventually made the lower than low
budget Evil Dead movies, and the rest
is history.

It’s hard to convey how uproariously funny If Chins Could Kill is. No matter how
serious the event or how rocky the road to movie-making was, Campbell will
describe it all with wry humor and exaggeration, as if his entire life has been
one grand wink at his audience.

Almost every page has a photo or a diagram on it, which I’ve
never seen in an autobiography before. This includes a diagram of how holes
were cut into a floor so actors could stick their arms and legs through, to be
filmed as disembodied limbs. (Remember: lower than low.)

He even goes into fundraising, which most books of this sort
don’t describe. It was a matter of approaching businessmen, relatives, friends,
and friends of friends, and trying to talk them into forking over money for a
share in whatever profits the movie will make. I think most books don’t cover
this because the process is so humiliating.

To stipulate: Chins
does not cover the current Evil Dead
series on Starz. But even if you’re not an Evil
Dead fan (and I’m not), you’ll find this book hilarious.